British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, west central England.EPA

LONDON — A British intelligence report says that other nations are hiring hackers to launch attacks against their enemies, a trend it described as particularly worrying.

The warning over cybermercenaries came in an annual report published Wednesday by Britain’s Intelligence and Security Committee, a watchdog body of senior lawmakers that oversees Britain’s spy agencies.

The report cited testimony from British eavesdropping agency GCHQ when it warned that foreign countries were hiring out “skilled cyber professionals” to attack a diverse range of targets including financial institutions and energy companies.

The lawmakers didn’t go into much further detail, but there’s long been concern over the proliferation of private companies that make money by developing and distributing offensive software.

The report also covered issues of domestic terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and counterintelligence.